Peter Calo Interview

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 26 April 2009 16:52

When singer/composer Carly Simon and master songwriter Jimmy Webb need charts done for their upcoming album, it's Simon's long-time guitarist, Peter Calo, who flies from his home in Croton on the Hudson New York to the island of Martha's Vineyard, ready to work with the two legends as their creativity gets into high gear. "Thursday I was with Jimmy Webb all day working with Carly's stuff, recording at Legacy with Frank Filepetti. "Jimmy is just one of my favorite people and songwriters. One hell of a cat" Calo told Modern Guitar in July of 2007. "(Webb's) worked with everybody and... he's beyond the music - he can talk about anything, he's a listener too." Jimmy Webb's arranging, production, songwriting and piano credits are staggering including work on Carly Simon's 1997 epic "Film Noir", the Arista album which Calo appears on with this pair of musical giants. Simultaneous with his work with Simon and Webb, Mr. Calo is credited as guitarist on the hit film Hairspray, and for good reason. He's also on the Grammy winning Original Broadway Cast Album of Hairspray which was recorded at Right Track Studio in New York between June 29 and July 1 of 2002. On the recording of the film soundtrack Calo told Modern Guitars that he, guitarist Dave Spinozza, drummer Chuck DeGanon and bassist Frank Centeno trekked up to Toronto in June of 2006 where the music from the Broadway show was modified. With the film breaking the 140 million dollar mark in gross receipts worldwide as of September 5, 2007, the credit becomes all the more impressive. Calo met Dave Spinozza when they were worked on the Joe Pesci record, "Vincent Laguardia Gambini Sings Just for You". Hired by Hall & Oates producer Tom "TBone" Wolk who, coincidentally, played guitar on Carly Simon's Coming Around Again and was multi instruments on her Greatest Hits Live, they spent about a week with a staggering cast of musicians on a project coordinated by Tommy Mottola. It was that work with Spinnoza that led to Calo's first Broadway show. Calo initially thought it would last about six months, "6 months is a pretty long gig" the guitarist noted considering also that "I'll get to play with my friend Dave Spinnoza."Come August 15, 2008, those initial six months will turn into 6 years. In between his work on Hairspray and with Carly, not to mention flying to London to perform on James Taylor and Carly Simon's son, Ben Taylor's album, Peter is producing a number of artists including Jan Horvath, New York pianist/vocalist Mary Gatchell and a variety of others including show tune singer Ingrid Saxon (famous vocal coach David Sorin-Collyer's daughter). Calo's production work gets a pristine sound with dynamic performances, an interesting mix of bringing the talent to a place where they can be at their best, complementing but never getting in the way. A LITTLE HISTORY Peter Calo was born in a small town in Alberta Canada and moved to Boston with his family when he was in high school, 9th grade. At that point in time he took up the guitar and within two years or so was invited by the MIT Classical Guitar Society (founded in 1971 by Vo Ta Han) to perform a concert at Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge. "I started out playing classical guitar, that was my first love along with the blues and funk" the guitarist told this writer back in November of 2005 during the Carly Simon tour. By 1982 his jazz band Bellvista released a six song E.P. followed by his own "Spoonerism" in 1983 and a track, "Fine Line", on 1985's "Boston Rock & Roll Anthology Vol. #7" for this writer's label, Varulven Records. With Sarah Caldwell and Leonard Bernstein in Bernstein's masterpiece, "Mass", Peter Calo was the only person to have performed both the singing role of the rock musician in that opera as well as playing the guitar. "After the performance Leonard Bernstein came up and gave me a hug as I took my bow - I'm looking for the photo of that" (in Calo's personal archives). A mainstay of the Boston scene, Calo was involved as an original member of both Down Avenue (the band which had Charles Pettigrew of Charles & Eddie "Would I Lie To You" fame) and The Heavy Metal Horns. After his stints with both groups Peter moved to New York where he began doing session work, producing and eventually hooked up with Carly Simon, beginning what is now a ten year relationship with the legendary singer/songwriter. Peter worked on the Julie Taymor filme "All You Need Is Love" and also released an instrumental tribute to the fab four entitled Here Comes The Sun. Enclosed is the American album art with the Japanese rendition right next to it. THE INTERVIEW GemmMagazine.com: Peter, with over a half a decade of work on the Broadway show "Hairspray" how does that experience differ from playing in concert with Jane Oliver, Lesley Gore or Dobie Gray? Calo: In some way they are the same in that it's a show with set arrangements. But most pit bands are not on stage and so you don't feed off the energy of the crowd. That's left for the actors and this creates a separation from the emotion of the show. The Hairspray show is pretty energetic and the band is pretty much into the music every show. But it's the musicians playing for the musician as we don't see any one and don't really see the actors and some musician don't even know what's going on on the stage. GemmZine.Com Do you throw in new licks or if there's a different crowd response do you create something spur of the moment? Calo: Yes at my show I get to play whatever I want. GemmZine: Do you feel any different about your role in the music industry performing both on Broadway and with artists like Jane Oliver, Carly Simon, Lesley Gore and Jan Horvath - and how does that affect your solo work? Calo: All the lovely women you mentioned all have their own personalities which I really dig. Comparing who they are as people and their music is apples and oranges. And well, the music of "Hairspray" is Marc Shaiman. He is an amazing person and of course... what a talent. I'd like to think that I've gotten something wonderful and useful from all these musicians and it comes out in my music in some way. GemmZine.com: Do the contacts help your solo work? Calo: No and, well... yes. I don't actively do my solo work. I just let it happen. Probably not to great results. GemmZine.com: We disagree with you, Peter, your body of solo work over the past few decades is deep and worth exploring. The Bellvista discs in the early 80s show a communication through instrumental music that the audience at jazz club Ryles turned out for and enjoyed; the post-Bellvista recordings with John Cafferty engineer Phil Green captured on "Spoonerism" featured a pop side the fans might not have detected prior to its release, as well as the instrumental work in between Carly Simon's releases Letters Never Sent (1994) and Film Noir (1997) that was the "Cape Ann" CD. Bur your 2001 disc on North Star, "Cowboy Song", is a beautiful ode to traditional songs from the old west that would make C & W fan (and Elton John lyricist) Bernie Taupin proud. North Star's instrumental tributes to The Beatles and The Eagles also provide insight into the wide range of music that you embrace and re-visit. And then you switch hats from that array of genres to participate in Hairspray. Calo: Hairspray is a wonderful, wonderful group of people. from the band to the stagehands to wardrobe, hair production, the producer of course and the actors. It is a small village. Sometimes, well many times, folks sub in the band - all the different instruments - so it's kind of not even the same band for two nights in a row... and yet it is as we all know and play together all the time. The hang is as great as any backstage - jokes, talk, gossip and all that. Sometimes we are tired so we play in silence. Sometimes we are cracking jokes all night long. Sometimes we shed in between tunes. I'm fortunate to be in a great show with a great band with a great conductor. It could be a lot worse. The road show to Les Mis in Teledo OH. sorry Teledo..... Hey you get the point. GemmZine.com: And in juggling the Broadway work, Carly's new CD, the production of a variety of artists as well as raising a family, you continue to come up with new idea for your solo work. Calo: I have always written. Now I'm in a (more intense) writing period and I feel a recording or two coming out. I want to put out a CD of songs. I also want to do an acoustic guitar CD out. I'm very excited about this. I'm currently working with Carly simon on her next release which will be out on the Starbucks/Hear Music label. Jimmy webb is the co producer with Frank Filipetti engineering. I had a treat writing with Carly and Jimmy and throwing my two cents in guitar wise. GemmZine.com: Do you - on your own or perhaps with some of the other musicians - want to create new music for Broadway? Calo: Yes, I would love to write a very successful Broadway show and make a lot of money. It's kind of a dream of mine. GemmZine.com: What did you do on the soundtrack to the film Flawless? Calo: I played classical guitar throughout the film. It was an amazing score. Very clever and a really nice film GemmZine.com: Your filmography is impressive http://www.petercalo.com/ct_discography_f.shtml how does working on a PBS special differ from your interaction with directors like Julie Taymor? Calo: It's all the same. When you work with talented people with a vision and who like to be creative and like when you're creative, well it's just wonderful. Calo noted, on his work with Carly: "we've been working off and on for ten years...the first tour was 1995. I met her in August - we did an impromptu gig." They also did a concert taped exclusively for "Lifetime" and Calo's datebook filled up quickly. Over the years he's performed on shows with Dobey Gray, Debbie Boone, Lesley Gore as well as "The New York Voices", a four piece vocal band which toured with Peter as part of the backing trio, performing on their 1993 GRP album, "What's Inside", as well as their 1998 RCA disc "New York Voices Sing The Songs Of Paul Simon". He also worked on Carly Simon's 1994 disc "Letter's Never Sent" (Arista) and, as mentioned above, on her Grammy nominated 1997 disc "Film Noir". "He (Peter) goes to bat for the artist when he's producing" said well-known Boston vocalist Pamela Ruby Russell. "He's very inspiring, I learned so much from him. He's kind, professional, very organized, great producer ...and a guitarmaster." Russell also feels that Calo's musical vocabulary is phenomenal "because he plays in so many genres, in so many types of music." Ingrid Saxon echoed Russell's sentiments: "Peter knows so much about the recording process - he's been on so many sessions; he knew how to work with the engineer, work with the pro-tools. He had every angle covered. "Along with involvement soundtrack to the 1999 Robert De Niro film "Flawless" and other movies, Calo's recorded output is becoming voluminous - work with Linda Eder, Rosie O'Donnell, David Osborne, Kate Taylor and so many others. In early September, 2007, he is going to the premiere of Julie Taymor's film "Across The Universe" where Taymor utilizes the music of the Beatles to forward the plot. Peter Calo's involvement with the film came early on working with the actors in the very beginning, singing some of the tunes in rehearsals and helping the actors get into character. Calo also appears on the soundtrack to the film as his guitar work does in the aforementioned Flawless and Hairspray movies. If he's not jet-setting in L.A. with Tara Macri (who just finished a successful run on Broadway as "Amber Von Tussel" in Hairspray) or performing music director duties for Gospel/Classical/Opera/Pop singer Jeeminn Lee he might be tearing it up at clubs like The Town Crier where bassist Peter Donovan and drummer Joe Mowatt join him to jam. The singer/songwriter/guitarist always finds interesting projects coming his way - at the present time working on a "Spoken Arts" children's book entitled "Mississippi Morning" which is based in the South in 1933. The subject matter - racism in the Depression era - is a heavy theme for a children's book. With all this output his own work gets somehow lost in the shuffle. It shouldn't. Peter Calo's "Cowboy Song" album is historical and an instant classic that should be in libraries across the country. The artist recorded contemporary arrangements of songs from the American West including "Shenandoah", "Red River Valley", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." A big departure from his instrumental tribute albums to The Eagles and The Beatles, two separate discs, on the North Star label, and his own "Wired To The Moon" and "Cape Ann" albums. An overall look at Peter Calo's body of work is wonderfully time consuming and fun - over a decade with Carly Simon, an essential part of her new collaboration with Jim Webb, current soundtracks to Hairspray and Across the Universe as well as nightly performances on Broadway as a guitarist in Hairspray as well as his production work, the children's book and his solo career. One needs a scorecard...or a page with plenty of room for a perpetual discography. For more information on this influential and important artist who worked many a Boston/Cambridge nightclub and theater, go to http://www.petercalo.com Read more about Peter Calo on Gemmzine: http://tinyurl.com/petercalobeatles

Last Updated on Monday, 09 November 2009 07:09

Bruce Sudano of Brooklyn Dreams

Written by Joe Viglione

Friday, 24 April 2009 15:38

BRUCE SUDANO RELEASES LIFE AND THE ROMANTICLIFE AND THE ROMANTIC It's been 5 years since Bruce Sudano released his beautiful Rainy Day Soul album, and a year since the 2008 single, "The Sweetest Thing", was available to the public. The wait was worth it as Life And The Romantic continues the positive themes and the heartfelt lyrics. "The Sweetest Thing" features John Billings on bass guitar, Akil Thompson on electric and Bruce on vocals, keyboards, programming and acoustic guitar. It's a pleasant melody and mellow performance as are most of the ten songs here. The title of the previous album appears as a melodramatic and introspective track 8 here, "Rainy Day Soul" perhaps some lingering inspiration from the previous work. Jeffrey Scott Willis provides some understated saxophone flavoring the piece. "Love Is A Sacrafice" features Mimi Dohler on backing vocals, a very commercial definition of love, from the artist's perspective, of course, suitable for a Barry Gibb solo disc, something the Bee Gees could've embraced in their heyday. Snippets of the lyrics are included in the eight page booklet with the rest of them available on Bruce Sudano.com Written and produced by the industry veteran with a couple of collaboration it's impressive to hear this personality stretch off into his own direction, apart from his groups Brooklyn Dreams and Alive 'n' Kickin. As his old friend Tommy James moved into new spaces on his Hold The Fire disc, Bruce Sudano takes the listener into a dreamy arena on "Beyond Forever", a place Sade once owned all to herself. Very uplifting, captivating and radio friendly. expert review by Joe Viglione Bruce Sudano chats with Joe Viglione, April 23, 2009 Gemmzine: Bruce, what's the official release date on Life and The Romantic? Bruce: Now! It takes a while coordinating all the online outlets to post a record but I think we’re about there. It’s been available on my web site for almost a month now though. Gemmzine: Are any of the tracks, including the one entitled "Rainy Day Soul", fragments of music or inspired from your CD, Rainy Day Soul? Bruce: No, not really. The thing is I don’t title my CD’s until they’re about finished. Then I let the music speak to me and I get the title. So the song Rainy Day Soul on this record wasn’t in existence when my last record (which was titled Rainy Day Soul) came out. Oddly enough, I recently started writing a song called Life and the Romantic so if I finish it and like it, it could be on the next one. Gemmzine: How long have you professionally been making music? Bruce: Well, if you consider being professional getting paid, then I was twelve. It was a guitarist, a trumpet player and me on my accordion playing at a sweet sixteen party! I played clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan through high school and college but it wasn’t until I co-wrote with Tommy James in my late teens that I broke into the majors so to speak. Gemmzine: Tell us about your contribution to the Tommy James hit "Ball of Fire" and the group you were in at that point in time. Bruce: Well the way I like to tell it is my contribution to the song was the word “of”! Really I think at that point I was happy just to be in the room with Tommy and working with him. It was 1969 and he was one of the major hit makers of that era so I was a kid just soaking up as much as I could. Tommy was and is a very generous person and I’m proud to call him a friend as well as one of my mentors. I learned a lot from him about how to write a song and make a record. Gemmzine: How did Alive And Kicking come together? Bruce: The guys in the band were all from the neighborhood and we’d been playing together in numerous bands with different names and slightly different configurations for years. The biggest change was adding a female singer, Sandee Toder, to the mix. I’m not quite sure how that came about, it was a long time ago, but we evolved into a popular band working the major clubs at the time like Cheetah, Electric Circus, etc. Sandee’s sister in law became our manager and she somehow got Tommy to come down to the club one night and that’s how we met him. Gemmzine: That single, "Tighter, Tighter" is one of the all-time classics and was a treat during the summer of 1970. Did the group tour, and do you have any memorable stories from the tour or the recording sessions? Bruce Sudano: Yes, we did tour in fact someone recently sent me a picture of us performing at the Baltimore Civic Center in August of 1970. We also did a few TV shows like American Bandstand and Mike Douglas but generally I remember being very cocky and headstrong. We were young and I don’t think I realized what we had accomplished. After a couple of years I left the band. Gemmzine: Brooklyn Dreams hit in 1979 with Donna Summer on "Heaven Knows", going gold and hitting #4, even higher than the #7 "Tighter, Tighter" - when did Brooklyn Dreams form? Bruce Sudano: Brooklyn Dreams formed in 1976. Joe, Eddie and I were long time friends and living in LA pursuing solo careers when a friend of ours from the neighborhood, Susan Munao, who was VP of Publicity at Casablanca Records encouraged us to try it as a group. I had some songs written, we wrote some more together and before we knew it signed a deal with Jimmy Ienner and Millennium Records back in New York. Gemmzine: You've recorded with Debby Boone, Bobby Womack, Eddie Money, Martin Mull and others, and produced a variety of recordings. Are you currently active in Nashville with other artists or are you concentrating on your own music? Bruce Sudano: I’ve been blessed to work with many talented people during my career and I always enjoy it. Lately though, I’ve been concentrating on my music but I find things go in cycles so we’ll see what the future holds. Right now I’m pretty anxious to get out and play in support of the new record so that’s my focus. Gemmzine: How many of your children are involved in performing and recording? Bruce Sudano:All three of my daughters can sing. In fact two of them, Mimi and Amanda Grace make appearances on Life and the Romantic. Mimi’s the mother of three so she’s not actively pursuing a career right now but she’s very gifted. Brooklyn is an actress who’s been showing up as a guest star on all the top shows, like The Unit and CSI, she was on a hit series for a couple of years, has a couple of movies in the can and is currently working on a new ABC pilot called Limelight. Amanda recently got married, sings with her husband Abner Ramirez and they call themselves JohnnySwim. Their current EP is awesome and they’re back in the studio recording while touring colleges and clubs. Be on the lookout for them, they really got the cool factor going! Gemmzine:Will Fugitive Kind be re-released? Bruce Sudano:I really don’t know. RCA owns the rights, so it’s really up to them. Gemmzine:Are you going to tour and/or do television/radio behind Life And The Romantic? Bruce Sudano: Yes, my goal with this record is to translate it onto the stage. So, I’m actively looking for those opportunities. As for radio, “It’s Her Wedding Day” is currently very high on the AC charts following in the footsteps of “The Sweetest Thing” so I’m very pleased with that and the jazz stations are picking up on “A Glass of Red and the Sunset” as well as “Beyond Forever”. Gemmzine: How long did it take to put the new disc together? Bruce Sudano:It takes me awhile to make a full CD because I write until I sense there’s a record there with continuity. I like my records to have a thematic tonality both musically and lyrically. So I write until I figure out where I’m going and everything I write isn’t going to fit thus it takes time. As an artist you just work until you have a sense it’s finished, when you’ve said all you have to say. Gemmzine:With so many years between the two releases is Life And The Romantic a continuation of the lyrical themes from Rainy Day Soul or totally new inspirations? Bruce Sudano: It’s an evolution. Mood wise there’s a similarity and there’s always a spiritual sense but lyrically I’m dealing with different issues. Rainy Day Soul was written at a time when I was in some emotional turmoil. It reflects the transition from being a parent with a house full of kids to an empty nester and the effects it had on my wife, our relationship, and me. It was an interesting time and we had to digest it and work through it. Life and the Romantic is more about navigating the responsibilities of life, learning to appreciate the journey, having faith, not being afraid and being satisfied with the simple things because they’re the most precious. Gemmzine:What other projects are you working on? Bruce Sudano: I see Rainy Day Soul and Life and the Romantic as two records of a trilogy. So I’ve already begun writing for the third installment. No, I don’t know what it’s about and I don’t know what it’s called but yes it may contain a new song called Life and the Romantic!

Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 May 2009 14:25

Peter Noone Interview

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 23 April 2009 18:43

The Peter Noone Interview JV: We're here on Visual Radio with Peter Noone, Peter, great to see you. PN: Hey Joe, how ya doin? It's funny sitting here with these Monkees' songs going in the background, that's Davey Jones of The Monkees rehearsing his show, so if you recocgnize some Monkees tunes, they're not mine, they just sound like Herman's Hermits JV: ...They sound like... PN: I think The Monkees was kind of a follow-on to Herman's Hermits, wasn't it? JV: absolutely PN: It's that kind of...stealing the same kind of energy and then having a TV show about us...Yeah.. JV: That's probably something that should have happened for Herman's Hermits...you should've had a TV show PN: No, No, No, No, No...we didn't want a tv show, we wanted to be a rock & roll band, that's all we were interested in. We didn't want a tv show. We wanted just to be Herman's Hermits, that's hard to be just Herman's Hermits you know. So we started out as a band who drove around in a van and then we became big stars everywhere in the world. And then we stopped, it's good. Perfect. Perfect career. JV: You were second maybe only to The Beatles in that four year period for having, what, 18 hit records in Billboard... PN: Yeah, but my mom thought we were better than The Beatles, and my sister. You know The Beatles were the best thing around, I mean, to be even compared in the same sentence is pretty good, thank you. You know, from that period there were like four bands, it was like Herman's Hermits, Beatles, Stones and Dave Clark Five. And then lots of other bands who sort of had a bit, a piece of the cake, they all shared one bit, we all shared the big part. I know this song. JV: I don't ("She Hangs Out" from Pisces, Aquariaus Jones & Dolenz - see photo below) PN: It's a Monkees tune. I have a 12 year old daughter and there's this TV channel called Nicolodean and they have all these constant..constant like...those...TV shows from the 60's and the 70's JV: It's a great channel, Nik At Night, Nicolodean PN: I'm one of these weird people who doesn't watch television so it's all very confusing to me. I meet people and they say, I say I feel I know you from somewhere... and they say "I was in Charlie's Angels"...and I say "What label were you on? ".. you know Charlie's Angel was a TV show and I missed it, I missed it all. Now there's this bathing suit...I know David Hasselhoff, and I see him on the airport the other day and all these women are making this big fuss about him ...and I said "Is his TV show still on" and they say "it's the #1 TV show" I said "That silly show about a car" and they said "NO, it's not a car, it's a surf show or something..." yes, I remember him when he had a tv show...last time I saw him... JV: Knight Rider PN: Exactly. He had this car that spoke...I said that is the stupidest idea for a TV show I've ever heard of ...and he said "Well, it's doing well", so I said "Well done." He's a nice guy, I like him. JV: Yes, he was on a record label around the corner from my house, Critique Records, part of BMG PN: I know he's always wanted to be a bit of a singer, he asked me to produce him once, but, unfortunately i didn't have time for any of that, you know JV: That'd be cool, a cool collaboration PN: I think he should go, if he's any good, he should go with Don Was or somebody like that, and get a hit record. Why not, if you're on tv like that, he's pretty famous, if just everybody who semi liked him off the TV bought a record he'd sell twenty million records. ...that guy...the drummer...his wife's in that show as well what's that really good drummer, his wife's in that show as well... JV: Pamela Lee...Pamela Anderson (The Monkees1 song Vallerie by Davey Jones is playing live in the background during sound check PN: Yeah, Lee, he's a good drummer JV: Motley Crue PN: What a great drummer, big guy, like Stan Lynch, those big guys play the drumgs good. JV: It's a good band PN: Is it? I've never seen the band, I've just seen him. I went to a gig once, they were at The Forum, and I stand in the back cause they were too loud for me, and I remember the drummer was like, wow, good drummer, and he came off the stage and spun around...good stuff JV: Now you mentioned your daughter, Natalie, she sang on your...is that your most recent album, your live album PN: Yeah, it's a CD and an album that I sell just on my website and at concerts, you know, not on the Teen Idol concerts - my solo ones, it's just really a collection of like live stuff, you know, and at the London Palladium she sang a song with me, and we recorded it, and it's in the album, it's different things, you know, Herman's Hermits live, Peter Noone live, it's called Peter Noone On The Road JV: Yes, we were listening on the way up, Chris (Warden, our camera woman) has an autographed copy, she saw you a couple of years ago... PN: Good for Chris, she sure has very good taste in music JV: She does PN: So there's another version of that, there's the one with the English tunes in it, which is kind of hip, I'll send you that one, because in England we had different hits, some have different songs in songs in England JV: I've got a question for you, we have a co-host (a few actually, Joe Tortelli in this instance) that couldn't make it tonight, but he said to mention to you, Goldie & The Gingerbreads did a tune of yours... PN: You know what happened..."Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" we were going to do it...two friends of mine wrote it .... & Lewis...John C...and lewis, and they left it on Mickey Most desk, and I think Mike who was The ANimal's manager - nicked it, and recorded it with Goldie & The Gingerbreads...and they put theirs out before we could in England, so we had the hit in America which was better and they had the hit in England...small hit (Peter jokes and is facetious throughout the interview so take his comments with a grain of salt...) JV: But she went on to become Genya Ravan & Ten Years A... Ten Years...TEN WHEEL DRIVE!!! PN: Ten Wheel Drive and Ten Years After...yeah, she grew her hair a little bit more, got a bigger nose, changed color... JV: I worked with both Alvin Lee and Genya in a promotion capacity so I get them confused... PN Alright JV: Sorry about that PN Genya, yeah, I remember her. They were nice, I remember them - we used to run into them, nice people. Tough girls from New York, I remember them, yeah, didn't want to mention anything about the record in case they'd beat me up... JV: a hem, ...very good...ah...your daughter recorded with you at The London Palladium did you cut the whole live album there? PN: No,some of it was in Palm Springs, some of it, it's all different places...actually, the last time I did date with Davey was in Coopertino, in California, which is like this...famnous because Apples are made there or something, Mcintosh is there ...and ah, I did "Ferry Across The MErsey" and "If I Fell" there, and, you know bits and pieces from everywhere, I ...we just did Ferry Cross The Mersey for fun, it's not my song End Part I. This was a 40-50 minute interview with Peter broadcast on Visual Radio in 1998. Visual Radio Interview With Peter Noone July 23, 1998, 5:30 P.M. Transcribed 7-25-98, 7:30 PM Copyright(C) 1998 Joe Viglione Track listing 1. I'M Into Something Good 2. Silhouettes 3. Wonderful World 4. Must To Avoid 5. For Love 6. Mrs Brown You'Ve Got A Lo 7. Dream On 8. Jezebel 9. You Won'T Be Leaving 10. This Door Swings Both Way 11. Just A Little Bit Better 12. Museum 13. Don'T Go Out Into The Rai 14. I Can Take Or Leave Your 15. Listen People 16. No Milk Today 17. There's A Kind Of Hush 18. I'M Henry The Viii I Am 19. East West 20. Show Me Girl 21. Sleepy Joe 22. Sunshine Girl 23. Something Is Happening 24. My Sentimental Friend 25. Here Comes The Star 26. Years May Come Years May 27. Bet Yer Life I Do 28. Lady Barbara 29. Green Street Green 30. Peter Noone Right On Moth

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July 2009 18:54

Interview with Suzanne Vega

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 29 March 2009 12:34

Suzanne Vega Interview Remember to click on the photos to find these items in Gemm.com itself. http://tinyurl.com/suzannevegainterview is the direct link to this article. Respected folk/pop artist appeared on Program #100 of Visual Radio with Joe Viglione The snow was coming down steadily and driving conditions were hazardous, but Vega and her publicist showed up at TV 3 in Medford to talk about her career, and her book "The Passionate Eye" on Spike/Avon. My company was in touch with Ms. Vega as far back as 1987 as the late Jimmy Miller, former producer for The Rolling Stones, loved her album "Solitude Standing" and wanted to meet her. They had corresponded by mail and we finally met backstage at the Orpheum Theater in Boston twelve years before this interview. Suzanne was charming then, and has retained that mystique and charisma, When we sent Lou Reed the portion of this interview where Vega compliments his book "Between Thought And Expression", Lou wrote me back "That was awfully nice of Suzanne." I sent Beatle George Harrison a photo of the show (I had promoted an Alvin Lee single that George appeared on in 1992 entitled "Real Life Blues") and George wrote back "Tell Suzanne that 99point9farenheitdegrees is one of the best albums of the nineties." Visual Radio began with an interview with The Jefferson Starship's Marty Balin, and rare footage of J.S. performing in Connecticut in 1995. Four years later Suzanne Vega appeared on our 100th program, as the show is about to shift from Public Access to commercial television. It was an honor for us to have Suzanne Vega as our one hundredth guest.Waterstones has closed in the short time between Vega's visit to Boston, and the new competition from Amazon.Com, Barnes & Noble, and the internet. But "The Passionate Eye" by Suzanne Vega - one of the first books to be released on Hearst's new SPIKE imprint, will endure. It is marvelous. Joe Viglione Producer/Host Visual Radio-Television July 19, 1999 Suzanne Vega Interview JV: Visual Radio Program #100, we are honored to have Suzanne Vega as our special guest. Hello Suzanne. SV: Hi. JV: It's our 100th show. SV: Congratulations JV: And congratulations to you on "The Passionate Eye", a really wonderful book, published by Spike/Avon. Tell me, how did it all come together, you're making records & did they say "Hey, we need a book?" SV: No, no...I guess it was after "Luka" became a hit in 1987, suddenly I found myself with a lot of offers from people who said "you know we really like your songwriting and you tell stories and would you like to write a book?" and at that point I just didn't have the time to follow through on any of it. So by the time I actually got focused on thinking about a book again it was several years later. A few years ago I got a letter from someone who then became my agent and they said "would you like to put together a proposal", and I said "yes", and it kind of grew out of that. JV: It's subtitled "The collected writings of Suzanne Vega" and it truly is collected writing SV: Well I love writing and I've written for most of my life so it did seem like a very natural thing to do. JV: And it reads naturally. Who is Bruce Miyashita? SV: I belong to a group on the internet, they had formed themselves before I found out about it and they had devoted themselves to writing about the lyrics and stuff like that, and so I joined this group a few years ago. And this particular person, Bruce Miyashita would write essays about my lyrics and then also about related issues, like Film Noire, mental illness, or, you know, whatever kind of provoked his fancy. So he had written an essay called "The Passionate Eye" and I just was stricken by the title and so I asked him if I could use it for the title here. JV: The internet has changed everything. "Solitude Standing", of course, starts the book. There's so much to explore here. It reminds me of picking up The Kybalion ...you can go anywhere in The Kybalion and read Hermetic philosophy, with your book I can go anywhere...you don't have to start at the beginning... SV: Right. Well, I'm glad you have that attitude because the thing about this book that I've probably been asked more times than anything else is "why are there no page numbers..." JV: That was one of my questions (laughter)!!! SV: and so..(laughter), that was one of the reasons why I think was because when I arranged the book I didn't arrange it chronologically. The editors and I decided that we should do it by themes because different themes come up in your life at different times. And I think taking that a step further they decided not to have a table of contents or any page numbers so you could just kind of dip into the book any time you wanted. So you got the spirit of it right away. JV: I never have notes on my show, everyone knows that. This being show #100 I wanted to have notes, I had said "the thing that annoys me is that there are no page numbers!!!!" SV: Sorry (laughter) JV: How can I reference things that I like? SV: I know. Well, I guess you'll have to either number them yourself or you'll have to dog ear them or - ah - put post it notes JV: So you don't mind if I write in your book? SV: Oh, no, I don't mind if you write in my book... I mean you can't write in MY book, but you can write in your own book if you... JV: ...my copy of your book...because certain things hit you and...wow... SV: yeah JV: I"m going to keep this for my whole life SV: OK JV: because a lot of books you read and... SV: ...give them away JV: back to the library or whatever but this is an important work SV: Thank you. JV: Very interesting, usually in someone's book they may interview a Leonard Cohen, but in your book Leonard Cohen interviews you... SV: Yeah, well I thought that anyone who was attracted to the lyrics might also be attracted to this particular interview JV: It's excellent, Leonard's a very important artist...and you people have this relationship with your music and... SV: I mean I'd say to say that we're friends is a bit too intimate. I wouldn't say that we're really friends but that we've sort of known each other over the years at these very odd functions, you know, I'll meet him at a photo shoot or, ah, I went to the Juno Awards, which it mentions in there, to sing a part of his song when he got a lifetime achievement award...so I see him under these different circumstances...so it's not quite a friendship but it's a ...some kind of relationship that seems to go on JV: You're colleagues SV: Yeah, I guess so, although I'm a lot younger than he is. I learned a lot from him, so I wouldn't say colleagues really, he's ...when Rolling Stone had asked me to pick a mentor to have my picture taken with I picked him JV: Oh SV: And that's how we first met JV: That's great SV: It was really fascinating to meet him under those circumstances JV: And how did the interview come about? SV: The interview came about because A & M records at that time decided for some reason they thought it would be an interesting idea and the original idea was that they were going to do it for radio and also for print. And for some reason it just never got off the ground. I think it was on the internet for awhile and that was pretty much the extent of where it had been published - although maybe it also got published in Europe. So it was A & M that had commissioned Leonard Cohen to do this. JV: Oh wow, so this is really quite a find, then for fans of yours and Leonard's. SV: I think so. JV: As I said, I was going through the book and you had something on masculinity... and this was published in Esquire... SV: Yeah... JV: and then "Marlene" (On The Wall) comes right after it... SV: Yes, well, because, you see, the end of this one "On Masculinity" today (published in Esquire Magazine, 1991) they were talking about this one part here where someone asked me you know who impersonates sex for me, and that's a little bit of a joke because they didn't mean who impersonates sex for me, they meant who embodies it JV: Right SV: And at that point so I said my boyfriend and Marlene Dietrich and that's why it leads into "Marlene On The Wall" JV: My boyfriend "A" meaning his initial? SV: Yes, his initial... JV: As opposed to your first boyfriend SV: Right. (chuckles), Right, he was not my first boyfriend but his first initial was "A". JV: Marlene, what movies of hers do you like? SV: Oh I was a huge fan of hers, it must've been quite a while ago, the one I remember loving was, I think it was called "A Foreign Affair" (1947/48) JV: Oh SV: You know, I think there's a scene in that where she's about to be beheaded or something, they've drawn a sword and they're holding it in front of her face and she chooses that moment to check her lipstick in the reflection of the sword and I thought, you know, you really can't beat that moment. I think that was probably the one or maybe it was "Destry Rides Again"(1939), I can't remember especially, but, there's a few... JV: Wasn't she in a movie "In The Navy" or something? She sang a song "In The Navy", in a navy suit? SV: I don't remember...I don't remember... JV: I think that (scene) was re-issued in the film "Myra Breckinridge" with Raquel Welch. Myra/Raquel teaches a film class, and there's Marlene Dietrich, and I just thought "on masculinity", and there's Marlene in a sailor's suit...you know SV: Right, no, the one scene I do remember is when she's in a tuxedo and she's singing "Falling In Love Again" and then she kisses this woman on the mouth which I guess at that point is very risque JV: Wow SV:: Then I think later in that film I think she sings "Hot Voodoo" in sort of a gorilla outfit...which is... I don't know, you don't even want to get into that, but... JV: Ok, so you've exposed yourself with the book, -you know, "Tom's Diner". I'd hear "Tom's Diner" on the radio, but unlike "Luka" where I grabbed the lyrics right away, I didn't realize till last night that "Tom's Diner", I never really grasped the lyrics till I read it in the book... SV: hmmm JV: The melody is so strong... SV: Everybody thinks of the melody, it's true, everybody thinks (Suzanne starts singing the intro to "Tom's Diner"), that's really what sticks in everyone's mind, and a few people figure out that it's about breakfast or it's about feeling alienated or it's about, you know, sitting in a diner on a typical morning, and that kind of thing JV: It wasn't until I started reading the book that I realized I never understood those lyrics, it's one of the only songs for me, ever, that the lyrics didn't impact me till I read them in the book - so now we get to the next level - is it OK to ask the artist what a song is about after you've read it in their book? SV: Yeah, sure, I mean you can always ask. (both of us laugh simultaneously) JV: OK, Marlene on the wall. Is she a spy? SV: Marlene on the wall? Well, she is a little bit, I mean it was a photograph of Marlene Dietrich that was on my wall, and I thought that the idea of having a song written from an inanimate point of view was kind of an unusual one, and that was...So I guess she was sort of acting as a spy if she could've been looking at the activities that were happening in my life, in my room at that point, um, it was sort of meant to be, ah, yeah, as though she were observing and what her judgments or what her thoughts might have been. JV: So she was counseling you? SV: Well, if I...If I...ah, yeah, I guess she was, in a sense... JV: ha SV: If I could've, you know, in my imagination, which, of course, is what it's all about. * * * * * JV: You put song lyrics in here, and then there's material from when you were a child. SV: Yeah JV: It's wild SV: I think it's wild - I guess I'd started writing at a very early age, you know, with the expectation and the hope that one day I would have a book out. So, I carefully kept everything, oh, you know, and so, yeah, now I get to put it in this collection JV: Would you mind reading? SV: No, no, I don't mind... JV: Is "Night Song" ? SV: Night Song, OK, This is actually a song that I had written when I was about fifteen and my parents really didn't know what to make of it. They used to call it "The Love Song To The Mother" I guess I was sort of trying to write a Dylan-esque song about somone on the other side of the civilized world... you know... OK, "Night Song"... (Suzanne starts reading her poem from the book...) It's two o'clock in the morning... (She laughs), "I just found a typo, I'm sorry, we'll start again... I't two o'clock in the morning... (Suzanne reads "Night Song" in its entirety) ...because you can't stop the rising sun..." SV: ...So what would make you pick this song to read... JV: Well, I'm amazed that at age 15 you came up with something that reads like an adult wrote it. SV: Thank you. JV: I remember Janis Ian was like 12 years old and she played in Greenwich Village with one of my previous guests (author/vocal coach) Jeannie Deva, they were in a band together, and I'm saying "these girls were 12 years old!" and Janis hit at 15 with her song... SV: "Society's Child" - yeah - JV: I'm just amazed when I see this depth at this young age SV: Thank you. JV: Did you ever think to take the book to grammar schools and high schools and maybe lecture and...I think it's inspiring for someone fifteen years old to say like "wow, this woman wrote this when she was fifteen and it's published" SV: I haven't yet, although my sister's a schoolteacher and so sometimes I go to her class and I hear from a lot of teachers that they'll use the songs in different ways, they'll use "Luka", or a lot of people seem to use "Tom's Diner" a lot of people who teach English, seem to want to use "Tom's Diner" to teach about meter and, ah, because the language is pretty simple, you know. and so they like it for that. JV: Now "Tom's Diner" - did you have any idea that anyone was covering it WITH you? SV: That someone had done that re-mix of it? Ah, no, I did not, and in fact, it was kind of a puzzle when it happened 'cause it did happen three years after the original song. So I was on tour promoting "9 Objects of Desire" and all of a sudden we got a telephone call from my manager and he said "these two boys in England have stolen your song and we're going to sue them, and this can't happen" and all of this sort of thing and I said "well, let me listen to it', and I listened to it and thought it was actually very funny and very clever, and a very original idea, it was certainly something I wouldn't have thought of myself, so when I listened to it and I thought "I think it's all right" so we released it as a single and it became hugely successful, much to my surprise. JV: So you released it? SV:: I asked the record company to release it. JV: A & M? SV: Yeah. JV: So I thought that they had done this on their own and it hit... SV: They had done it on their own and it was starting to really sell and that's when A & M found out about it. You know, their story was that they had called the record company and that they had never got anyone to call back. And they decided not to wait and to release it themselves. And it started to just fly out of the stores. JV: That is wild SV: it was wild, yeah, it was really one of those unpredictable things. JV: And who are they? SV: They're not really a group, they are two men called DNA, and one's a singles promotions guy, the other one's a guy in the studio who just does re-mixes, and they've done a lot of remixes since then, a lot of really successful ones, like for Loreena McKennitt, she has one called "The Mummers' Dance" I think, (from the 1997 album "The Book Of Secrets" Quinlan Road Records) and they did her remix, so.... YOU CAN BUY SUZANNE VEGA BOOKS AND CDs ON GEMM http://www1.gemm.com/c/search.pl?field=GEMM+SEARCH&wild=suzanne+Vega&Go!.x=0&Go!.y=0&Go!=Search&picklang=%2Findex.cgi%3Flang%3DEN%26clickflag%3D1%26 YOU CAN BUY LOREENA McKENNITT'S NIGHTS FROM THE ALHAMBRA HERE: http://www1.gemm.com/item/LOREENA--MCKINNITT/NIGHTS--FROM--THE--ALHAMBRA/GML190320965/ loreena mckennitt CD Remember to click on the photos to find these items in Gemm.com itself. http://tinyurl.com/suzannevegainterview is the direct link to this article.

Last Updated on Saturday, 19 September 2009 21:53

CDavid Heymann interview

Written by Joe Viglione

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 19:31

July 22, 2009, Wednesday, at 7:30 PM C. David Heymann appeared on Visual Radio #423 and spoke with host Joe Viglione for 54 minutes. The first six minutes of the show contain a very rare video by Musty Chiffon (nee Dini Lamot), original songwriter from the band Human Sexual Response doing an obscure piano/vocal solo version of her hit song "Jackie Onassis" Fig. 14 contains the hit "Jackie Onassis" not to be confused with the book by Masters & Johnson, where they- so obviously - got their name. Was Jackie Kennedy Onassis the model for Gore Vidal's classic MYRA BRECKINRIDGE? By Joe Viglione "I am Myra Breckinridge whom no man will ever possess" is the opening line to this legendary Gore Vidal blockbuster.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 July 2009 23:27

Daniel Asa Rose interview Larry's Kidney

Written by Joe Viglione

Saturday, 18 July 2009 11:32

Daniel Asa Rose interview on July 18, 2009 Books by Daniel Asa Rose Hiding Places: A Father and his Sons Retrace Their Family's Escape From the Holocaust

Interview With Craig Fenton, TAKE ME TO A CIRCUS TENT and HAVE YOU SEEN THE STARS TONIGHT

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 29 March 2009 12:48

Direct link to this article here: http://tinyurl.com/craigfentoninterview Remember to click on book covers to find the items in Gemm.com Author Craig Fenton's Take Me To A Circus Tent, along with Jeff Tamarkin's "Got A Revolution", are the two most scholarly works on the saga of the Jefferson Airplane. With Have You Seen The Stars Tonite (Jefferson Starship Flight Manual 1974-78 & J.S. The Next Generation 1992-2007), Fenton takes the fan even deeper into Jeffersonian lore. GEMMZINE caught up with Fenton in between his book tour, lectures, and his work on the upcoming Jefferson Airplane Scrapbook. GEMM: This is truly the guide for the obsessed Jefferson Starship fan, but where do you draw the line between the Mickey Thomas era and what fans get to hear today? CF: Thank you for the nice words and superlative introduction. When the logical progression dictated a continuation of the exploration of the Jefferson Family on the surface there were four directions the flight could go. The first would be a look at the classic line-up of the Jefferson Starship 1974-1978. The second would be the focus on Paul Kantner and Manager Michael Gaiman’s rescue of the name and their trail 1992-Present. The third would be everything about any era of the Jefferson name, and the forth was the flight I felt I could feel internally satisfied. GEMM: Are there tape traders who are very aware of the concerts you discuss in the book, and do you think this brings in new fans to appreciate this music? There are a myriad of traders that are aware and those that are now seeing the incredible diversity of a Jefferson Starship performance. It most certainly brings in the new fans and rekindles the flame of some that were dormant. The Paul McCartney philosophy of live music is perfect. He stated it best in the 1989 press-conference “As long as the fans buy the regular product.” GEMM: Lou Reed just released a remake of his 1972 Berlin album, re-recording it live in 2006. Why hasn't Paul Kantner put on a "Blows Against The Empire" tour, staging the entire first draft of what would become The Jefferson Starship? CF: There are marketing ideals that satisfy the needs of different bands. The Who performing “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia” were often epic shows. Since the 1992 re-launch of the Jefferson Starship Paul Kantner and Michael Gaiman have pulled many rabbits out of a hat. The shows were more individualized and not full scale tours, although there are exceptions. For example Signe Anderson played a bunch of shows with the Jefferson starship starting on February 5th of 1993. On November 22, 2006 the band performed the entire “Blows Against The Empire Suite.” The unknown adds to the concert experience. November 27th of 2006 the Jefferson Starship played every song from the Jefferson Airplane’s “Surrealistic Pillow” record. To further illustrate the magnitude of many of the gigs over the years would be the guest stars that played at least one song during the show. These include but are not limited to Randy California (Spirit), Tom Constanten (Grateful Dead), Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane), Peter Frampton (Humble Pie), Robbie Krieger (Doors), David LaFlamme (It’s A Beautiful Day), Ray Manzarek (Doors), and Jack Traylor (Steelwind). GEMM: Are Sunfighter, Baron Von Tollbooth and other Kantner/Slick titles considered part of the pure Jefferson Starship legacy? CF: They most certainly are. The respect I have for the Jefferson Family fan is beyond description. To many a song from “Blows Against The Empire” called “The Baby Tree” or “Your Mind Has Left Your body” off “Ballad Of The Chrome Nun” is as common and important to them as the radio songs. GEMM: Your books have a great attention to detail, have you thought of doing a character study of the artists you write about, something to reach a mass audience with? Thank you for the compliment. The question is always to balance properly a story by a band that I have admiration for that hasn’t been told. It would be an honor to see a Jefferson Airplane book through the eyes of Marty Balin come to fruition with Marty, esteemed rock journalist Joe Viglione, and myself. Thank you to GEMM Magazine for the opportunity to talk about the Jefferson Starship and "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite." About Craig Fenton Author Craig Fenton's Take Me To A Circus Tent and Have You Seen The Stars Tonite (Jefferson Starship Flight Manual 1974-78 & J.S. The Next Generation 1992-2007) are available on Gemm.com Craig Fenton http://craigtheairplaneman.wordpress.com/ Send this story around by giving your friends this link: http://tinyurl.com/craigfentoninterview Another interview with Craig Fenton on Gemmzine can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/rarerecordsongemm Previous Craig Fenton article: http://tinyurl.com/jessebarishinterview

Last Updated on Sunday, 18 October 2009 21:55